Archived Your thoughts on a union?

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I love that spot says "We're not Anti-Union we are Pro Team".. Its like a recording, the union video is hysterical by the way.. the whole time I was laughing so loud I had to leave..

I told my STL I apologize but it was just so funny, he was laughing just as hard. We both come from previous Unionized Jobs and both agree that Target is fine without it.. That being said, they arent perfect! There is alot that they need to do to better help and improve on, but union wise its fine without one...
 
The Mule said:
Would they prefer us not to be in a union? Sure, I don't doubt that one bit. What I'm saying is to call someone "anti-union" is to bring up images of the original days when they started and companies sending out enforcers to beat people up and use fear and intimidation to keep their employees "in line". I remember the union video myself and it was hardly intimidating.

Maybe we're simply disagreeing on how they choose to word things here. I feel we can agree on some underlining issues here and work past the rest. Another fine example of how an in person discussing goes much farther in expressing tone and meaning than simple words on a forum at times.
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I find Target to be Anti Union due to that video too. I thought I was going to watch a video about how to do my job, instead it was about Unions and how they are bad. Atleast balance it out and mention the good stuff.

As soon as the video ended, I left the conference room with the "Wow this place really doesn't like unions" feeling.
 
I don't think Target needs a union. Apart from leadership positions, your typical Target Team Members are High School/College students, or people working a part-time 2nd job.
 
Maybe this is why they got rid of specialists and other non managers getting full time hours?
 
target0 said:
Maybe this is why they got rid of specialists and other non managers getting full time hours?
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BINGO! A cigar for you sir.
There is a company that specializes in union busting (or prevention as they like to call it) which put out a guide.
One of the things it says is to make sure that the only people who have consistent hours are management.
Anybody paid hourly must be kept on a very short leash with as many part time positions as possible. That way there is much less likelihood of people organizing.
Being anti-union is no longer a case of getting the baseball bat wielding, gun carrying thugs like they did in my grandfathers day (boy did he have some stories).
Now it's which politicians do they buy, which laws do they get shove through (i.e. Wisconsin), maybe hiring all Spanish speaking staff for night side and English for day side, special training for the executives on how to deal with anyone who breathes the word union, even the tests they give you on hiring can be used to target people who might be potential trouble makers.
It's much more subtle but every bit as dangerous. Nobodies head gets busted but people do loose their homes or have their heat turned off in the winter because their hours got cut.
 
Target continues to deny the current or recent use of this particular orientation union video even when new employees continue to say they watched saw it this year.

http://gawker.com/5812286/target-unions-and-the-moment-of-truth

Target Corp. has set up a site just for the NY store trying to unionize.

http://tgtfiles.target.com/ciab/ciabHome.html?ref=sr_shorturl_t1262

Very good article in yesterday's StarTribune. I never did understand why they keep hiring new people when current workers want more hours and have a wide availability.

www.startribune.com/business/123693829.html

Huffington Post too.

www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/06/16/target-union-labor-movement_n_877741.html
 
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Interesting articles, thanks for those target0.
Spot owes some people money. They stole most of the anti-union blurbs from the posters in union thread on the old board.
 
What's really interesting is that the NLRB is now involved and investigating both sides but apparently Target was stupid enough to actually print out the BS about closing the store and handed it to the employees.
 
target0 said:
Another article in Target's hometown newspaper. Wonder if these papers are making it to the breakrooms in Minnesota Targets?

www.startribune.com/business/124045544.html
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We have St. Paul Pioneer Press in the breakroom usually.

In all honesty I don't see a union happening at Target. Our work conditions are good (compared to other places I've worked), and management is usually pretty fair.

At my store, most of our employees consist of College and High School students, and retired people working part time. I don't think any of these groups really care about unionizing :D
 
I agree that the team members today are just college and high school students and retired people. Target wants it this way because those TMs don't need a union. Now if they still had full time specialists that have years or decades of seniority then that's another story. AE2010 took care of the remaining long term full time team and how many of them are still getting full time hours of 32 or more or have just quit?

Maybe that NY store still has the disgruntled former specialists that want the old days back.
 
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It's made ABC/CBS/CNN/Huffington Post news cycle so it's big.

I cannot help but think that the executives that are on the ground are being a tad dumb by riding around the parking lot on Segway's. Seems a little too much to me.
 
I used to be studying to become an electrician, and I could see how a union would be good for electrical workers and other physical labor jobs. I don't think unions really belong in retail though. Just my .02
 
Sad to say I'm not surprised.
Target threw everything they had into making sure this didn't happen.
I wouldn't be surprised that if you could get the financial breakdown of what they spent to defeat this, it would have cost more then the puny raises they gave all their employees for the year.
 
Probably means that store will lose a lot of TMs that were outspoken about change. They will be moved to the IE pile and be coached for every little misstep. The rest will continue to fight for 10-23.9 hours in an attempt to get benefits with an average of at least 24 hours. The $0.1-0.50 will continue to be the norm and mostly on the low end of that range.

On the management end there will be hell to pay for not preventing disgruntle employees from seeking out union representation.

Segway security force coming soon to all Target stores instead of reasonable pay raises and hours.
 
Now think about this instead of blabbing it out.

Now the union idea was shot down, you are all saying that the TM's who voted yes or participated in the pro-union effort will be repremanded/coached/treated badly/poor reviews.!?! Really?

Now say that were to occur. How would this make Target look? You think they would commit political suicide? (maybe not on the scale of getting Sarah Palin to win the presidential race.. but i digress)

It really is sad to see how poorly people view Target, even its own TM's. Now some of you may say, oh he is a TL so of course he would be for Target! Heres the facts, I have been with Target for 2 years. 2 years and I am a supervisor.
In my 5 years of being in that SAME union everyone wants.. I got no promotion and a total of a 1.25 raise (spread out through out the 5 years)

Im sorry if you feel you want money handed to you just because Target and its CEO is loaded. Business doesnt work like that.

Work for it. And you will get rewarded and recognized.. If you dont, go to your ETL, TL, DTL or HR.. and tell them. Things will change.

okay, i think my rant is over. Now i know some people will disagree with me, and i do apologize for it. PLain and simply, you have a job. and that is a alot more than one can say in this economy,

Target 2 ----Unions 0
 
Spot would never do anything blatantly illegal. It will be just on the edge. Just enough to make the people who supported the union ( who face it weren't happy with the way things were in the first place) want to move on. Squeezing hours, putting people on notice, all very easy, all very legitimate.

What most folks seem to miss is that it's not about the money. Sure collective bargaining can lead to better salaries but it doesn't always.

What we are talking about here is power. The joining together of working people into a powerful force that can stand against adversity.

I often see posts from people who had bad experiences when they worked union jobs and I always wonder if they were active in their union. If they were stewards and went to meetings. If you don't like how things are done in your union , you can change them, can't do that with spot.

Plan and simple, my grandfather, uncles, aunts, fought and bleed to get decent wages and working conditions in this country.
Now everything they fought for is being stripped away slowly but surely while the rich are getting richer.
 
Pett, I agreed with you. The raise you got paid the union dues.

Comm, then technology changed everything that your relatives worked for. You do have valid points.
 
To be honest, despite how things got/could get, I would still prefer not to be unionised... unless it weren't a fact that people are pretty much forced into joining a union if there is one/you have no choice but to join.

I'm sorry, but I don't want to have to pay all the fees when chances are I never wanted the union in the first place. :C ESPECIALLY if being unionised doesn't bring that many changes.

Then again, even if by chance it was like the older days when unions were optional and not "had to join"-ish, I have a feeling chances are some (NOT all) pro-union people might not look all that kindly on non-union people... take my mom for example.

She's been a teacher since as long as I can remember, and she chose not to join a union even when all those around her were. That was when they were given the choice to join or not to join.

Then it changed where every teacher was automatically made part of the union whether they liked it or not, and some of them tended to look down on my mom like she wasn't ask good as them because she still refused to join. :/
 
Union = No.

Can't say I'm surprised!
Target is a very decent place to work and I don't think that it is in need of a union!!
Would I like to make a few more dollars per hour? Hell Yes.
Would I like better benefits? Of course.

But, the point is that Target pays fair wages and has benefits that I would consider on the plus side "decent." We all want more money and more perks, but, what Target offers us is competitive! Otherwise would any of us be working there if it was the worst pay and benefits out there?
 
The Huffington post article about the vote.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/06/18/target-union-vote-reject_n_879668.html

This was the section that just killed me ...

Betsey Wilson, a Target worker for two years, said Friday that she would not be voting for the union.

"What I'm afraid of is someone coming in here and controlling me," she said. "I'm my own union. I represent me."

Wilson said she earns around $20,000 a year and receives food stamps, yet she expressed satisfaction with her pay.

"I don't mind being on food stamps," she said. "I pay taxes, I deserve them."

Offering sentiments that underscore the challenges for organizing labor in an age of economic insecurity and scarcity, Wilson pointedly dismissed the value of handing a sliver of her wages off to a third party for union dues.

"A union is for people that don't want to work anymore," she said.
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This poor woman not only doesn't see that she is getting shafted but is happy with it.
To add insult to injury Target is able to use our taxes to supplement their lousy pay in order to support her family.
Target is only competitive because the market as a whole sucks horribly and the only way to fix that is to join together and fight.
Technology has changed the way things are done but it hasn't changed some basic facts. The rich will always do everything they can to exploit the lower classes and the only way to beat them is to join together.
 
If we let the union thread stay the most frequented on this site, it's going to give our community a bad name before it really even gets going. the vote failed, let's drop it. Something similar will be in the news soon I'm sure.
 
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